Anybody watching the MotoGP race at Malaysia on TV? They just had a nasty crash, and it appeared someone's helmet flew off in the process (I had caught the tail end of the crash). I hope to god nothing bad has happened.

Edit (something to add): I'm not trying to make funny, or mock the situations or anything of the sort. The odd thing with the past week has been, the very night before Dan Wheldon's death, something drew me to read about the Dale Earnhardt and Ayrton Senna deaths. This past week, I had a dream that I was watching a motorcycle race on TV (not this exact one, but just one in general), and something like that happened in my dream. As I said, not trying to make funny or mock the situation, but it's just generally freaky with all of that.

Last edited by PYLrulz on Sun Oct 23, 2011 5:35 am; edited 1 time in total

PYLrulz wrote:It's bad enough when it happens once, but in the span of 7 days?!?

RIP Marco

Like I said with Wheldon's crash, racing is becoming unsafe with the high speeds & lack of safety for the high speed crashes in most veichles.

RIP Marco

The thing was, with Simonelli's crash, it wasn't as much the speed (it happened in a slower corner), it was just one of the drivers (Edwards I believe) that couldn't react quick enough. I can't imagine being him right now. I would think it's one thing where you trigger an accident (through no fault of ones own, due to racing conditions) that eventually took ones life, but to be the person that (obviously unintentionally) took the life of a fellow competitor. I just can't imagine the feeling he could be going through right now)

PYLrulz wrote:It's bad enough when it happens once, but in the span of 7 days?!?

RIP Marco

Like I said with Wheldon's crash, racing is becoming unsafe with the high speeds & lack of safety for the high speed crashes in most veichles.

RIP Marco

As what PYLrulz said, speed was not a factor at all in this crash. Simoncelli came back on the racing line at the wrong time and Colin Edwards had nowhere to go but to unfortunately drill Simoncelli in the head. Edwards as you can see jams his arm between something on Simoncelli's bike and dislocates his shoulder in the process. Again as what PYLrulz said about being Edwards at this point, I would not want to be him in any way.

PYLrulz wrote:It's bad enough when it happens once, but in the span of 7 days?!?

RIP Marco

Edit (something to add): I'm not trying to make funny, or mock the situations or anything of the sort. The odd thing with the past week has been, the very night before Dan Wheldon's death, something drew me to read about the Dale Earnhardt and Ayrton Senna deaths. This past week, I had a dream that I was watching a motorcycle race on TV (not this exact one, but just one in general), and something like that happened in my dream. As I said, not trying to make funny or mock the situation, but it's just generally freaky with all of that.

the day before Vegas i suddenly got the urge to go through youtube a watch various fatal crashes over again. it was eery going through my viewing history because it all lined up. mark porter, mike burgmann, then dan wheldon. now marco simoncelli.

this has been a terrible past week. dan wheldon, rick huseman, marco simoncelli. i'm not sure how much more we can take

There wasn't much speed involved,the extent of the wreckage was not huge.It was just like what happened to Shoya Tomizawa(killed last year at Misano).Just an innocent victim making a small mistake that led to tragic consequences.Had that happened in the back of the pack,he would have slid into the barrier,stood up and walked away.just a shame that Edwards and Rossi had to be there at the exact time he made the little error.

teamwhiper wrote:There wasn't much speed involved,the extent of the wreckage was not huge.It was just like what happened to Shoya Tomizawa(killed last year at Misano).Just an innocent victim making a small mistake that led to tragic consequences.Had that happened in the back of the pack,he would have slid into the barrier,stood up and walked away.just a shame that Edwards and Rossi had to be there at the exact time he made the little error.

R.I.P Marco Simoncelli

Same thing that happened to Peter Lenz, that 14-year-old who was killed warming up at Indy the week before Tomizawa's fatal crash.

Nascar9fan wrote:Like I said with Wheldon's crash, racing is becoming unsafe with the high speeds & lack of safety for the high speed crashes in most veichles.

RIP Marco

Has racing ever been safe? There's always the chance of injury or death when dealing with heavy machinery. It's just a part of the sport, like it or not, and people need to accept that if they're going to watch it.

I don't really watch MotoGP all that often but it was surprising when I heard that Carrottop (Simoncelli) died. It was a horrible accident, but he went out quickly and probably didn't feel a thing which is what most people would prefer to have as their death, plus he was doing what he loved to do. Rest In Peace Marco Simoncelli.

F1V1 wrote:Has racing ever been safe? There's always the chance of injury or death when dealing with heavy machinery. It's just a part of the sport, like it or not, and people need to accept that if they're going to watch it.

you speak the truth, but when was the last time we lost two drivers in the span of a week? 1994?

F1V1 wrote:Has racing ever been safe? There's always the chance of injury or death when dealing with heavy machinery. It's just a part of the sport, like it or not, and people need to accept that if they're going to watch it.

you speak the truth, but when was the last time we lost two drivers in the span of a week? 1994?

Agreed. With stock cars, Indy cars, race tracks, you can do a lot, but with motorcycles, it's pretty much man, track, and bike, and only the track can be made safer under certain situations. This, like I said, was one of those deals where no matter what you do, the consequences were probably going to be deadly no matter what.

F1V1 wrote:Has racing ever been safe? There's always the chance of injury or death when dealing with heavy machinery. It's just a part of the sport, like it or not, and people need to accept that if they're going to watch it.

you speak the truth, but when was the last time we lost two drivers in the span of a week? 1994?

Yeah it's been a long time since we've had this much tragedy in the same week. Interesting note about Simoncelli, he suffered two preseason testing crashes at Sepang shortly before last season, the second of which cracked his helmet. Looks like Sepang wasn't nice to Marco :/

F1V1 wrote:Has racing ever been safe? There's always the chance of injury or death when dealing with heavy machinery. It's just a part of the sport, like it or not, and people need to accept that if they're going to watch it.

I don't really watch MotoGP all that often but it was surprising when I heard that Carrottop (Simoncelli) died. It was a horrible accident, but he went out quickly and probably didn't feel a thing which is what most people would prefer to have as their death, plus he was doing what he loved to do. Rest In Peace Marco Simoncelli.

Agreed. I have a hunch that some people around these parts need to stop watching motorsports altogether, because they simply can't take the reality that it's not as safe as...say...curling. I've witnessed over a dozen racing drivers die in my lifetime, but I still want to drive race cars myself. Why? Because I love the danger that is involved in motorsports; the combination of speed and controlled insanity creates a danger that exists in no other sport, nor can it; yet it defines motorsports. That's the way it always has been, and the way it always will be.

Some people just need to wake up and realize that they're not watching Dancing With The Stars, but actual vehicles matched up against each other in a battle of speed, skill, and technology. It's a totally different (no pun intended) ball game than other sports.

F1V1 wrote:Has racing ever been safe? There's always the chance of injury or death when dealing with heavy machinery. It's just a part of the sport, like it or not, and people need to accept that if they're going to watch it.

I don't really watch MotoGP all that often but it was surprising when I heard that Carrottop (Simoncelli) died. It was a horrible accident, but he went out quickly and probably didn't feel a thing which is what most people would prefer to have as their death, plus he was doing what he loved to do. Rest In Peace Marco Simoncelli.

Agreed. I have a hunch that some people around these parts need to stop watching motorsports altogether, because they simply can't take the reality that it's not as safe as...say...curling. I've witnessed over a dozen racing drivers die in my lifetime, but I still want to drive race cars myself. Why? Because I love the danger that is involved in motorsports; the combination of speed and controlled insanity creates a danger that exists in no other sport, nor can it; yet it defines motorsports. That's the way it always has been, and the way it always will be.

Some people just need to wake up and realize that they're not watching Dancing With The Stars, but actual vehicles matched up against each other in a battle of speed, skill, and technology. It's a totally different (no pun intended) ball game than other sports.

The difference is, some crashes (like Earnhardt, Wheldon, Senna) can be prevented. That's what some people call out. Yes, people can die racing, and certain situations come up where nothing can ever be done no matter what you do, but there are situations where it can be prevented.

honestly, thats what makes at least dan's death so much harder to accept, because everything performed flawlessly, but he was still killed. his definitely makes you think about the danger, because it proves that there are situations that simply cannot be accounted or prepared for

during nascar's tribute to wheldon, rusty talked about 1993 and being afraid that his car would always turn over when it spun out. but then roof flaps came out and he was no longer afraid because the risk had been lessened. we dont have that in wheldon or simoncelli's cases. the fear of crashing in the exact way that prevents all safety gear from helping you will always be there because that risk can never be reduced. and i think that's the reason so many people have spoken out about this. it's not so much the danger of the sport, as much as it is the fear and helplessness one feels when the sport proves that sometimes there's just nothing we can do about it

PYLrulz wrote:The difference is, some crashes (like Earnhardt, Wheldon, Senna) can be prevented. That's what some people call out. Yes, people can die racing, and certain situations come up where nothing can ever be done no matter what you do, but there are situations where it can be prevented.

Wheldon's crash couldn't have been prevented; honestly it was just bad luck that killed him. Earnhardt's death was the last in a long string of accidents that brought about the HANS device, which has been invaluable in racing since. Senna's death...I don't even know what happened, and I don't think anyone but Frank Williams knows what happened on May 1, 1994.

PYLrulz wrote:The difference is, some crashes (like Earnhardt, Wheldon, Senna) can be prevented. That's what some people call out. Yes, people can die racing, and certain situations come up where nothing can ever be done no matter what you do, but there are situations where it can be prevented.

Wheldon's crash couldn't have been prevented; honestly it was just bad luck that killed him. Earnhardt's death was the last in a long string of accidents that brought about the HANS device, which has been invaluable in racing since. Senna's death...I don't even know what happened, and I don't think anyone but Frank Williams knows what happened on May 1, 1994.

Well, I'll stick with what I said. Who knows, maybe Wheldon's crash will lead to Indy Cars that won't ramp off one another, or cars that, if they flip into catch fences top first, a driver can survive. Dale's crash led to a huge safety push to implement stuff that was around, and would try to prevent what happened again. Senna's crash the same.

Yes, racing is dangerous, but there are ways (through common sense or otherwise) to make it safer.

PYLrulz wrote:The difference is, some crashes (like Earnhardt, Wheldon, Senna) can be prevented. That's what some people call out. Yes, people can die racing, and certain situations come up where nothing can ever be done no matter what you do, but there are situations where it can be prevented.

Wheldon's crash couldn't have been prevented; honestly it was just bad luck that killed him. Earnhardt's death was the last in a long string of accidents that brought about the HANS device, which has been invaluable in racing since. Senna's death...I don't even know what happened, and I don't think anyone but Frank Williams knows what happened on May 1, 1994.

Well, it probably took too much accidents like this to get HANS brought in. Apart from Earnhardt, we've had Ratzenberger, Gonzalo Rodriguez, Blaise Alexander, Adam Petty, Kenny Irwin, Tony Roper, John Nemechek, Scott Brayton, Grant Adcow, J.D. McDuffie, Jovy Marcelo...That list is way longer than it should have been.

PYLrulz wrote:Well, I'll stick with what I said. Who knows, maybe Wheldon's crash will lead to Indy Cars that won't ramp off one another, or cars that, if they flip into catch fences top first, a driver can survive. Dale's crash led to a huge safety push to implement stuff that was around, and would try to prevent what happened again. Senna's crash the same.

Yes, racing is dangerous, but there are ways (through common sense or otherwise) to make it safer.

The new Indy car has ramps around the rear wheels, if you didn't remember, that are designed to keep the rear wheels from locking with the front wheels of another car and catapulting it into the air. That's why I said earlier that Wheldon's death won't be in vain, because he helped design that feature.

tommykl wrote:

Nextelracer wrote:

PYLrulz wrote:The difference is, some crashes (like Earnhardt, Wheldon, Senna) can be prevented. That's what some people call out. Yes, people can die racing, and certain situations come up where nothing can ever be done no matter what you do, but there are situations where it can be prevented.

Wheldon's crash couldn't have been prevented; honestly it was just bad luck that killed him. Earnhardt's death was the last in a long string of accidents that brought about the HANS device, which has been invaluable in racing since. Senna's death...I don't even know what happened, and I don't think anyone but Frank Williams knows what happened on May 1, 1994.

Well, it probably took too much accidents like this to get HANS brought in. Apart from Earnhardt, we've had Ratzenberger, Gonzalo Rodriguez, Blaise Alexander, Adam Petty, Kenny Irwin, Tony Roper, John Nemechek, Scott Brayton, Grant Adcow, J.D. McDuffie, Jovy Marcelo...That list is way longer than it should have been.

I won't disagree with you there. Basal skull fractures were all too common in days past, and even the drivers that didn't die from them (Stanley Smith, Ernie Irvan, Philippe Streiff, Rick Carelli) have some sort of trauma because of their crashes. Head and Neck restrains have certainly done their job, and I don't think that the BSF is going to be a problem ever again under normal circumstances.